Each of the Fovur JVizmbers of "100 Choice Selections" contained in. this volizme is paged separately, and the Index is made to correspond therewith. See EXPLANATION on first page of Contents.

The entire booh, contains nearly lOOO pages.

lOO

CHOICE SELECTIONS

No. 9.

SINCERITY THE SOUL OF ELOQUENCE.—Gocthk.

How Shall we learn to sway the minds of men By eloquence ?—to rule them, or persuade ?— Do you seek genuine and worthy fame? Reason and honest feeling want no arts Of utterance, ask no toil of elocution! And, when you speak in earnest, do you need A search for words? Oh! these fine holiday phrases, In which you robe your worn-out commonplaces, These scraps of paper which you crimp and curl And twist mto a thousand idle shapes, These filigree ornaments, are good for nothing,— Cost time and pains, please few, impose on no one; Are unrefreshing as the wind that whistles, In autumn, 'mong the dry and wrinkled leaves. Iffeeling does not prompt, in vain you strive. If from the soul the language does not come, By its own impulse, to impel the hearts Of hearers with communicated power, In vain you strive, in vain you study earnestly! Toil on forever, piece together fragments, Cook up your broken scraps of sentences, And blow, with puffing breath, a struggling light, Glimmering confusedly now, now cold in ashes; Startle the school-boys with your metaphors,— And, if such food may suit your appetite, Win the vain wonder of applauding children,— But never hope to stir the hearts of men, And mould the souls of many into one, By words which come not native from the heart!